Is a tortoise the same as a turtle? Yes and no. Both are amphibians. Both move slowly. Both have shells on their backs, but the turtle's is thinner. Neither can you keep as a pet.
The tortoise enters our life very early. I suppose, almost all of us have been told or have read the Aesop's fable. The slow but steady tortoise has impacted most all childhoods.
May be, early teens or twenties, we meet the re-writing of the tale by Sai Paranjape in her film "Katha" which is both a cute yet hilarious re-telling which questions the typical traditional wisdom
Around the same time, turtles enter our lives via the environmental mode. Remember the Oliver Riddley turtles? Actually, they are Pacific turtles. They choose the Konkan area to lay their eggs.
Earlier, these eggs used to be considered a delicacy. They were a source of easy money, too. The environmentalists made the locals aware of the extinction of the species. Now the turtles are tenderly treated like a daughter who has returned to her parental home for a delivery.
The sight of hundreds of baby turtles rushing (believe me, they toddle real fast towards the inviting sea waves and at once instinctively start paddling in the water) to the sea once the eggs are hatched is a real sight to see. In other words, once sensitively educated, the so-called illiterates, too, can be a source of positive change. That is the moral of the story. Hence the title of this blog!
Pratima@A treaty with the fabulous secrets of nature is a tryst with a better self residing in us!
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